Labor Day marks the weekend my Rhodesian Ridgeback, Kanga, and I rescued one another….9-years ago! How time flies. (and yes, I cake sunblock on my face, as you can see).

Kanga had been at the Humane Society for over 2 weeks, and no one adopted her. Surprising, since she is a beautiful specimen of this breed. Plus, she came fully trained, so someone had spent a lot of time and energy with her. She was skin and bone, and 50+ pounds underweight with kennel cough and dusty fur. Poor baby.

Luckily, a truck intercepted 20 dogs on their way to get euthanized, and brought them back to a no-kill shelter in Portland, OR called Family Dogs NW. This was where I found Kanga early the very next morning. I applied the same raw food principles to Kanga as I do for human healing, and over the next month or two she gained 50 pounds and regained radiant health on a Raw Food diet. You can read more about her journey in Ani’s Raw Food Kitchen, where Kanga has her own dog food chapter.

My brother Max saw this photo of Kanga and said she looks like she’s “mugging”. I had to ask him what the heck that means. Max said “mugging = posing, like rappers do for pics”. Hahaa. Yup, Kanga is a superstar, and very popular too. Folks always stop us to pet her, especially young children.

Kanga’s from Rhodesia, which is now Zimbabwe Rhodesia, and the Sahara so she loves the sun, warmth, and sand. She hates water, but it was so hot out that Kanga got her paws wet. I love dog beach because here she can roam off-leash, and run free to play with other dogs.

Kanga and I love laying in the sand and soaking up the sun. It’s never hot enough for us, and soaking up sun is one of our favorite past times. I’m happy I got to take Kanga to Huntington Dog Beach yesterday on the final hot day of the summer (it was 90 F) to celebrate her 9-year Bday and Dogversary with me. Thank you Kanga for being my family, love, and for hanging out with me for the past 9-years! I love you.

2 Responses to “Kanga’s 9-Year Birthday + Dogversary”

Congratulations to you and Kanga! It’s wonderful seeing you both looking so well!

Ani, you might recognize my last name…our children, Lisa and Christopher, have had the pleasure of meeting you in LA and San Francisco. I hope to meet you myself someday.

I am thrilled to say I now have all your books, two of which are signed. Some already need replacement as they are used on a daily basis. I’ve also gifted them to family, friends, neighbors, our favorite restaurant owners and to my orthopedic surgeon who was so kind to me when I broke my wrist last year. I was always surprised how much time he would take with me just discussing raw food.

This year my time has been spent nursing our 17-year old beagle, Buddy, back to health. In the spring, Buddy was showing signs of slowing down on his hour long morning walks. He wasn’t interested in eating his food and limited taking water. After our visit with the vet, we learned his liver and kidney values were very poor. Once he stopped eating his treats, we decided to stop all processed food. In the past, I had Buddy on all raw, but that made him drink too much water. At this time, he is getting 1/3 cup of turkey, carbs (for energy) and veggies. We have been doing this for two months and just got the good news that all his blood work is normal except for the kidney values that still need some improvement. Through this process I have been doing a lot of research. Two things that I learned and wanted to pass on to you is that garlic and onions are apparently toxic to animals. Not everyone agrees, but to be safe, I eliminated them from your Black Sesame Sunflower Bread which I make for Buddy. He still loves it as his treat.

We know that we can’t turn back the clock, but our Buddy is thriving and the vet never expected this outcome after our last visit. Buddy means as much to us as I know Kanga means to you!

Ani, do you have any other treat suggestions for Buddy? He does get veggies, but I’m still looking for another bread-like treat. I’m trying to give him as much variety as possible.